Monday, July 15, 2019

Final Fantasy Adventure, Part 3 - Serial Experiment Kain

Today on The Walking Dead: We learn that Amanda was bitten during the fight with Medusa. Of course, being bitten by Medusa means you turn to a monster.

In the Sword of Mana remake, Amanda survives (much like the other casualties so far) and is actually the male main character's love interest later on. I mean she has a huge role in that game, so I'm surprised to see her die like this.

NO! WHY!

"SOMEONE TELL ME WHY DAMMIT!"

Got the tears of Medusa...sort of. Now we just need the Tears of Pikachu to save Amanda.

Well, no. Amanda's gone forever. But at least we can un-parrot her brother...

...Lester the Unlikely. You better be thankful, ya rat bastard!

We actually lucked out because Kain forgot to get a tear from the real Medusa.

At this point, you go through another dungeon to battle Davias, the vile desert dictator. Lester the Unlikely joins the team for this one. The main gimmick here is that the enemies can turn the lights out.

This place is also full of mages that sling projectiles, as the difficulty takes a step up.

Davias himself is a bad dude. He's sorta the halfway-point big boss of Final Fantasy Adventure.

He turns into one of those Mindflayer things and unleashes BULLET HELL. Mindflayers are usually pretty strong in Final Fantasy games.

Here's the fight in the Switch version, Collection of Mana. Weird how the Switch only lets you record the past 30 seconds. It's a good fight, regardless.

After the fall of Davias, Lester the Unlikely stays here to play tunes in the town square. He also gives our hero the Mute spell, no word on if it works.

And that's the end of the game.

Well, nope, Kain still has to take down an entire empire. And the trek to do that begins NOW.

The trek to Glaive is long and perilous, taking you through the mountains.

The first of several boss fights on this trek: Metal Crab. No relation to Metal Crab Hugger or his distant cousin Metal Shark Player.

There's another boss here, the Cyclops. The Greek mythology tapping continues! Also, he has terrible aim, probably because of the one eye.

Winning gets you the morning star, one of the best weapons in the game.

This thing is beastly, and can break down barriers.

The boss rush continues, as you have to fight an imperial robot (??) next. The Final Fantasy series' penchant for ancient tech is well-known.

The long, long journey continues. Glaive is actually where the game began, the location of the arena where Kain had to fight for sport.

The bridge collapses behind him, which means there's NO TURNING BACK NOW

He falls down the waterfall to the area from the very beginning of the game. Whoa.

Getting into the castle of Glaive requires sneaking in via the sewers.

I cheat2win as I attack enemies from behind the safety of walls. Zone geometry fail.

The Chimera is the hardest boss in the game so far, and forces me to resort to using attack magic to win for the first time. It was too difficult to get in close for normal attacks.

When I replayed the game in the Collection of Mana, I was a LOT less underleveled and was able to go toe-to-toe with the Chimera with the Ball and Chain.

After taking the Chimera out, we find out what he was guarding: Girl. She doesn't have the pendant though.

LET'S GET 'EM!

Dark Lord's throne room...contains a bunch of random enemies, and no Dark Lord. WHERE IS HE?

Sword upgrade. Unfortunately, it doesn't steal HP. It's just a normal sword upgrade. At least the name is still cool even without any special effects.

::suddenly, Kain takes off his helmet to reveal Eowyn!:: "I am no boy!" he says.

"Only men are allowed to be heroes!" says Kain before shooing Girl away. Her healing power would be a huge help, but whatever man

The battle lines are drawn!

Kain and Dark Lord slug it out! He doesn't have any giant menacing second form or anything. He's just a guy. Huh.

That was a quick fight. Turns out Dark Lord really just wasn't much to write home about.

Here's the fight in the Collection of Mana version.

OH NOT AGAIN

Looks like Julius kidnapped Girl AGAIN, and this time she's brainwashed.

We get some rapey overtones as Julius appears. Now that Dark Lord is gone, Vice President Julius is the new ruler of Glaive!

He reveals that, like the song, he's been around for a long long time. The last survivor of the Vandole Empire that tried to take over the world long ago. Is this the same Vandole Empire as Secret of Mana? Is this a sequel? Are any of these games even canon with one another? I'll need to do some research.

Julius flies off with Girl, taking a moment to turn around and Force Push our hero off a cliff.

He tumbles down the waterways of the world, hitting his head on EVERYTHING, and ultimately ends up in the desert.

The chocobo shows up to rescue him.

Some people saw Kain falling out of the sky nearby. Kain falling from some great height, it must be Monday.

Kain spazzes out at his ineffectiveness. Julius just absolutely outclassed him in every regard, and Girl can't stop getting kidnapped every five minutes.

The equipment shop in the desert town has some crucial new stuff. I can't afford all of it, which is the game's way of telling me it's time to grind some levels.

The Flame Whip...yeah, they definitely got some inspiration from the Castlevania series, having the whip get upgraded into a flame whip.

Now I just need to grind out some funds to get the other stuff.

We get some devastating news from Bogard: Julius has already acquired the power of Mana while I was doddering around in the desert.